Shylock

Shakespeare rocks, and Gareth Armstrong totally agrees. Armstrong
wrote and directed Shylock, a one-man play, that muses on the trials and
tribulations of Jews throughout history. The character of Shylock
(think back to Merchant of Venice), the notorious money-lender with
exorbitant interest rates, was craftily re-textualized by Armstrong into
different scenariosâ€”think Dracula and Hitler. Get this: the kicker is
that Shylock is not a character in the play, merely the subject. It was
this character who got people, centuries later, pointing fingers at
Shakespeare, calling him anti-Semitic. Most people donâ€™t realize that
Shylock was, in actuality, a sympathetic character: â€śHath not a Jew
eyes? Hath not a Jew hands...â€ť And itâ€™s this ambiguity, villain or
victim, that gives Armstrong material for his modern play. (Tess Cutler)